Wednesday, August 2

As some may have read already, I began a new phone contract way back in April with Three UK. What I didn't mention then was that I had received a Nokia N70 with it. That's mainly because it's a pretty unexciting phone. I'm not here to bash Nokias but I will say that they're pretty crap.

So, around a month after it's release[1], I've finally gotten my hands on an SE K800i. And as soon as I had, I once again felt at home. I know it's only a phone, and as long as it's something that makes calls (not that I do that anyway), it shouldn't really matter how it does this. But despite that there's something I find intuitive about SE phones that make them much more agreeable than those from other manufacturers. It's the little things really.

So now, for example, I won't accidentally delete whole contacts when I just want to delete a single number. Or text messages now have the first name first instead of the surname. And unknown numbers are now trivial to add to your phonebook (I actually had to use pen and paper at one point with the N70. Smartphone? Yeh, ok). I also have the much missed events menu back, putting an end to the N70's habit of reminding me of appointments for the coming day at 12am. Data connections finally make sense and are flexible (no GSM dial up on the N70? Bizarre). I did have to debrand my Vodafone Live!-stricken K800i, but that was cheap and painless with the wonderful WotanServer.com.

So it's a winner already purely 'cos it's an SE. But it does also bring new things over and above its predecessor, the K750i (which is almost certainly my favourite phone ever). The main thing is the camera, or more specifically its Xenon flash. Personally I think that this feature has been underplayed by the industry; for me, it's easily the one thing that makes the already amazing camera (including the standard autofocus and now with a mechanical shutter) even more brilliant; expect more pictures and an increase of night shots.

Other goodies are also present; we now have an improved browser and RSS client for instance, both of which will be of interest to me now that Three have finally opened up their Internet access. There are downsides, like the use of M2 instead of something more open and how Outlook synchronisation just doesn't work as well as Nokia's set up (ie, not at all). And the K800i is slower, heavier and bigger than the K750i too.

But memory is cheap now and I'm sure I'll sort out the sync software eventually so these are minor issues really. As a non-Symbian phone I won't get to run Tomtom on it like I could on the Nokia, but I'm looking for a new Satnav system anyway and the other applications I'll live without.

So yeh, it's Lovely. Of course it's early days still and I've jumped the gun before (here, and here), but I'm pretty confident that this is a good bit of kit and should last me a year or so. Oh, and apparently I can now blog on the move too. Uh oh.

[1] And once, again a month after Zubs. Y'know, I don't think I'll ever get a phone before he has already.